Whiteley Reception

  Friday 10th January Happy New Year and welcome back to school.  We hope that you had a lovely time together.   T his week at school, we have been learning about toys.  The children talked to the class about their favourite toys and we have practised talking in full sentences. We learnt about the materials that toys are made from and compared the toys we play with now to those we enjoyed as babies.  The children tried hard to explain what makes toys suitable for babies and toddlers. Next week, we will be learning about toys in the past.  Please could you ask any grandparents or great grandparents if they have any photos of themselves as children playing with toys.  It would be lovely to share these with the class.  If you have any please could you email a copy to yearr@whiteleyapps.com Thank you! Phonics In phonics this week we have been revisiting the letters s,a,t and p.  We have used these sounds to focus on letter formation and to write ...

 Friday 13th December We would like to say a big THANK YOU to all the children for their wonderful nativity performances this week. They have been so excited to share the performance with you. I am sure you were just as excited to see them! Celebrations This week we have been thinking about celebrations, in particular Birthdays. We have been thinking about how birthday celebrations often have the same elements e.g. cards, presents and cake. We have also noticed that our birthday celebrations look different now from when we were babies. This week was Lola's birthday (our class toy). We celebrated by making cards and banners, by hanging balloons and of course, singing her happy birthday. Phonics This week in phonics we have been learning the letter sounds f, ff, l, ll, ss, s and h. We have been reading and writing words that contain these sounds. We have also revised all the letter sounds learnt so far. These are the phase 2 tricky words that we are learning. I, to, no, go, into, her...

  Friday 6th December This week, we have continued to read the story 'The foggy foggy forest'.  We have been writing a sentence to add to the story using rhyming words. Phonics This week in phonics we have been revisited the sounds b, d, e, f and the digraph ck . We have been reading and spelling words containing these phonemes e.g. bed, fun, rock etc. Bug Club Please see your child's reading log to see which book has been allocated this week.  We ask that you read the book twice more at home to support our 3 read approach. Thank you to those parents who are logging onto bug club and reading with their child.  It really does boost their confidence if they have shared the selected book at home. This week's bug club book to read at home is 'Is it a rock?' Maths This week in Maths, we have been thinking about the purpose of counting i.e. to find out how many objects there are?  The children have revisited 1-1 correspondence and remembering the stopping number. We...

  Friday 29th November This week at school we have started to read the book "The Foggy, Foggy Forest" by Nick Sharratt.  We have enjoyed predicting what the silhouette on each page might be.  We have identified the rhyme and discussed the meaning of the words in the story. As part of our Understanding the World learning, we have been exploring light with torches in our "dark dens" in our classrooms.  We have been making shadows and reflecting light and trying to describe what we have noticed. Phonics This week in phonics we have been learning the sounds of the letters l,ll and ss.  We have read words containing these sounds and practiced making CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words on magnetic boards.  We have also learnt to form the letters using our school handwriting style. Phase 2 phonic actions and sounds Bug Club Please check your child's reading log to see which sounds we have learnt this week and to see which book we have allocated. This week, ple...

If you would like to listen to the story click here   This week we have continued to work on the story 'Wow! said the owl' by the author Tim Hopgood. We have been in the woods for a scavenger hunt to try and match the colours from the story to the world around us. Then we described what we have seen. We thought carefully about the words we used in a sentence and remembered to use a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop. We added an adjective (describing word) to a simple sentence e.g. I can see beautiful red butterflies. Phonics This week in phonics we have been learning the sounds of the letters h, b, f and ff. We have read words containing these sounds and practiced making cvc (consonant, vowel, consonant) words on our magnetic boards. We have also learnt to form the letters using our school handwriting style. This week we have learnt 3 irregular or "tricky" words - these are words that we learn by sight and don't sound out. This weeks tricky words are I...

 Friday 15th November This week, we have been reading the book 'Wow! said the owl' by the author Tim Hopgood.  This is a story about a little owl who decides to stay awake all day instead of going to sleep at night like they are supposed to.  The little owl discovers a world bursting with colour.  We have talked about the front cover, the title and the author.  We have been joining in with the repeated text all together.  We have also discussed the meaning of some of the words to expand our vocabulary. Click here to listen to the story 'Wow! said the owl'. Phonics This week in phonics we have been learning the sounds of the letters ck, e, u, r.  We have read words containing these sounds and practiced making CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words on magnetic boards.  We have also learnt to form the letters using our school handwriting style. Phase 2 phonic actions and sounds Bug Club Please check your child's reading log to see which sounds we ha...

Friday 8th November  This week, we have been learning about Bonfire night and why we celebrate it.  We have listened to the story of Guy Fawkes and learnt to mix our own paint colours to create firework pictures. Phonics This week we have introduced the letters g, o, c and k.  We have learnt the names of the letters, the sounds they make and the accompanying action. You may like to ask your child to show you these actions. We have identified words that contain these letters e.g. goat begins with 'g', pot has 'o' in the middle of the word. Bug Club Please check your child's reading log to see which sounds we have learnt this week and to see which book we have allocated. This week please encourage your child to read ' Did, Sid dig!' twice at home.  It is really important to read these books at home.  We notice such an improvement in the confidence and reading development of the children who are accessing Bug Club at home.  Thank you! Maths A key focus this we...

 Friday 25th October This week in school, we have been learning all about Autumn. We went for a walk in our woods and looked for signs of Autumn. We talked about the different colours of the leaves and what is happening to the trees. We listened carefully to the sounds around us as we watched the swaying of the trees. You may like to look for signs of Autumn on your walk to and from school. Phonics In phonics this week we have been learning the to sing our alphabet song and we have learnt the letter sounds i, n, m and d. We have practised writing these letters. You may like to try out some of the bug club phonics games linked to these sounds. We have allocated the book "Sid did it". Please can you read this book twice at home as part of our three read approach.  Maths This week we have been consolidating number to 5 and singing counting songs together. You may like to sing these together. Click below Counting Songs Communication and Language After the holiday we will be shari...

 Friday 18th October This week, we have been learning the nursery rhyme 'Hickory, dickory dock'.  We have looked at a variety of clocks and noticed that all the numbers go in order.  We have also spent time talking about the timings of our school day e.g. we start our day at 9 o'clock, we eat lunch at 12 o'clock. Phonics This week we have begun Phase 2 and have introduced the letters s, a, t , p.  We have learnt the names of the letters, the sounds they make and the accompanying action. You may like to ask your child to show you these actions. We have identified words that contain these letters e.g. sun begins with 's', tip has 'p' at the end of the word. Bug Club Please check your child's reading log to see which sounds we have learnt this week. Maths This week in maths, we have been comparing quantities.  We have modelled the language 'more than' and 'fewer than' to describe how may objects are in a set. We have used a variety of ob...